Thursday, May 7, 2015

Eternity

The whole, very real concept of eternity has been heavily on my heart lately. It's easy for me, and I think many would agree, to see Heaven and the idea of eternity as a very faraway, and difficult to grasp concept. I for one often find myself viewing heaven and eternity as some sort of an end goal rather than something that is very real, and very present in every second of my life.
Eternity is not something that just happens to take form after death, it is already happening right beside us and all around us. In the spirit, eternity is very alive and in motion, though we may not perceive it in the flesh. Heaven and the Kingdom have been established, it has always been there, before anything, created by God the one, ultimate founder/artchitect/designer of... Everything that was and is and is to come. Heaven is happening, Heaven is moving, always. In our sleep, in our daily mundane affairs, in our sadness, in our elation, God, Jesus, His kingdom is perpetually, unceasingly in motion.
As someone who thinks about mortality a lot, and used to feel a lot of anxiety about the thought of it, this truth brought and keeps bringing me an immeasurable amount of peace. Eternity is a literal reality that walks alongside us, in every moment and facet of our existence. For any of you who feel lonely, we are never quite alone. Quite the contrary. Heaven is a vapor away from us, Jesus is a vapor away from us, rooting for us always. As I'm typing this out, Heaven is moving. As I take a drink of my water, Jesus is watching, all but a mere breath away.
All that separates us from forever with Jesus, is a small, small breath. That is how inconceivably close He is. One gasp of air, draws a line from our existence here to our flourishing existence in Heaven. Truly, death WHERE is your sting? Where, O death, is your victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55)
Eternity is not a remote, improbable approximation... Nor is it an end goal per se. Eternity lives and overflows in abundance of love and truth and reality, alongside us in every moment of our lives. God has never and will never stop existing. Eternity walks with us in this fleeting journey in our flesh. From the first breath to the last, eternity exists and anticipates us. God is so good, and His kingdom so real.
Knowing this brought so much peace to me, I hope it brings peace and joy to anyone else who reads this.